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Minecraft Developers Won't Allow NFTs On Gaming Platform

Minecraft will not allow non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be used on the popular gaming platform, with the company describing them as antithetical to Minecraft's "values of creative inclusion and playing together".



NFTs are digital items that confer ownership, such as images or videos. Ownership is recorded on a distributed digital register called a blockchain.



Digital files can generally be copied or deleted without charge. However, a NFT uniquely identifies the owner to enable the purchase, sale, or trade of the original ownership - often for cryptocurrency.



NFTs were the hottest topic in January, with sales reaching a record US$12bn (AU$17.4bn worldwide). However, sales crashed to a 12-month-low of US$1bn in June due to cryptocurrency's downturn.



Minecraft, which allows users build entire virtual worlds, can be highly customized. THEROBINSONSMUSIC Over the more than 10 years the game has existed it has built a huge community of users who design skins, mods and maps for the game.



NFTs saw Minecraft as a promising market, with an estimated user base of more than 141,000,000 by August 2021. They are already sharing digital items created for the game.



Mojang is a Microsoft-owned studio that developed Minecraft. They have ended speculation that NFTs would be allowed in their game. In a blog post, developers stated that blockchain technology was prohibited, stating that it was against Minecraft's values.



"Each one of these uses NFTs, and other blockchain technology creates digital owning based on scarcity or exclusion, which is contrary to Minecraft values of creative inclusion & playing together," the company stated.



NFTs do not reflect the needs of all members of our community. They create a symbiosis of the haves with the have-nots. NFTs encourage profiteering. We believe this is contrary to long-term joy, success and happiness of our players.



Mojang claimed that the creations of Minecraft had intrinsic worth and that NFTs have been sold at artificially or fraudulently inflated prices.



The studio stated that it was concerned that third-party NFTs were not reliable and could cause problems for players. It also warned that it was worried about a Minecraft-based implementation based entirely on blockchain technology - which could lead to players losing their investment.



This is often referred to as a "rug Pull" in the crypto community. Developers behind a crypto-project shut down the project and get the money. Blockverse, a third-party Minecraft development, seems to have been the victim of this. PC Gamer reported in January that the project disappeared, despite having been invested over US$1m or AU$1.45m.



Mojang has said that it is open to using "more secured" blockchain technology in Minecraft but that it does not plan to allow it.



We have just posted the following announcement on Discord regarding the current @Minecraft/ @nftworldsNFT status. pic.twitter.com/ARbKABRK4A



We've just shared the following announcement on our Discord regarding the current @Minecraft & @nftworldsNFT situation. pic.twitter.com/ARbKABRK4A



One group that was working on building NFTs into Minecraft said the move was a "step backwards in innovation" and if they were banned they would need to pivot to another gaming platform.



Roblox, another popular game that allows you to purchase items in-game, is not yet announcing a position on NFTs. However, the company's chief business officer, Craig Donato, told VentureBeat in April he didn't see why the game would not allow NFTs and it was more a question of when.



Square Enix and Ubisoft also have plans to use NFTs. This week Square Enix announced that for the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII next year people would be able to get physical trading cards with digital versions as NFTs.


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